The present invention relates to an audio system for a motor vehicle, and in particular to a technique for initializing a sound system for a motor vehicle.
Conventional vehicle sound systems are disclosed in European Patent Application EP-A-0 725522, and in the document entitled “OCC 8001 Conan Optical Transceiver,” C&C Electronics Limited, 1996. These sound systems have a control unit (also referred to as a head unit) that control the entire system and makes it possible to: (i) output information through a display unit, (ii) control the system from a single input unit operated by the user, (iii) and convert information into appropriate control instructions for the individual units of the sound system. However, these conventional sound systems have a rigid system structure that only allows units to be integrated into the system that have previously been provided for by appropriate programming of the control unit/head unit. Thus the disclosed sound systems are relatively inflexible, not very user-friendly and expensive, since, in order to adapt the system to support the addition of a new/additional component, the control unit/head unit must be replaced.
An additional limitation of the system disclosed in European Patent Application EP-A-0 725522 is that it has a rigid structure with only a single control unit/head unit, which serves as the sole input possibility for a system that is distributed over the motor vehicle. This single control unit does not allow multiple operation of the sound system, for example by the driver and by the rear passengers.
German application DE 196 51 308 A1 discloses a sound system, the scope of whose functions is formed by the scopes of the functions of the individual components of the sound system. This provides greater flexibility compared to the sound systems described in the preceding paragraph. The functional scope of the individual components, which comprises the possible functionality of these individual components (i.e., all the technical properties of the components which can be addressed by the user) is drawn upon to form the functional scope of the entire system. Within the framework of this system, the user can adjust individual functionalities for his purposes by specifying individual parameters through the single input unit, by means of the control unit. For example, the functionality “bass,” as a part of the functional scope of the amplifier component, can be raised to the parameter value +5 dB. This parameter value is adjusted by the control unit of the sound system. However, this sound system is limited to a single input unit.
Therefore, there is a need for a motor vehicle sound system that is flexible (e.g., expandable) and at the same time can be operated as easily, economically and reliably as possible.